Fripp Island Beachfront Real Estate

Five Reasons Why Humans Love Being By Water

What is it about being close to the ocean that makes us feel calm and happy? If you’ve ever experienced a sense of wonder and delight while looking out over the waves, then you know what we’re talking about.

As it turns out, the emotion of happiness that we experience when we’re close to the water is actually a psychological reaction to the ocean that happens in our brains. Did you know that people who live near the water tend to be happier and healthier? Read on for a look at the various reasons why we love being near the water.

Humans’ History with Water

Throughout our history, as people have migrated and grown their tribes and families, explored the planet, and planted new roots, we’ve followed the water. Explorers who sailed the oceans and rivers looking for new lands and experiencing different cultures often spent a majority of their lives at sea or on the river, so to them, the water was home. It also propelled them on their journey, and was a necessary way to travel from one place to another.

For that reason, the water represents possibilities, adventure, excitement and comfort, all at the same time. While being close to a large body of water is deeply comforting and causes us to feel relaxed and at home, it is also endless and largely unexplored, that gives us a sense of excitement and awe. Conde Nast Traveler says just as we may seek the water on our vacations from our everyday lives, explorers sought the water for the horizons they opened.

Stimulating our “Blue Minds”

According to Wallace J. Nichols, Ph.D., a marine biologist and author of a book titled Blue Mind, being close to the water gives us an immeasurable sense of peace. According to Conde Nast Traveler, his book talks about a so-called “blue mind” which describes the state that our brains enter when we are near the ocean. We are often overworked and overstimulated during our daily lives, but when we are faced with the ocean or a body of water that feels like home to us, we’re able to block out all of the noise and stress and enter our “blue mind,” which is peaceful and empty.

Life Depends on Water

From an evolutionary point of view, the water literally gives us life: humans need it to survive. Humans are a species that were built to depend on the water. We need to drink it to survive, and use it as a method of travel to get where we need to go, and eat the foods that it provides us like fish and mollusks to live. So, some part of our bodies having a psychosomatic reaction to the waves has to do with the fact that we know that we need those drops of water to live. Who wouldn’t be grateful and a little bit in awe?

Living Near the Water Makes us Healthier

Conde Nast Traveler says that living near the water can actually make us healthier. Studies have found that people who live near the ocean, a bay, or a river are generally healthier, as well as happier. This could be due to the fact that living by the ocean causes people to stress less—and stress can often lead to detrimental health issues, like weight gain, and even cause more serious issues like heart attacks.

Plus, if you live near the ocean in a place that has temperate weather year-round, you may be more physically active than people who live further inland. It’s a more attractive pastime to go for a walk on the beach than it is to go for a walk on a busy, noisy street—and a walk on the beach is better exercise than sitting in your car and driving to work each day.

Bodies of water also offer lots of opportunities for sports. Whether you’re a paddle-boarder, kayaker, jet-skier, or water-skier, there are plenty of opportunities to break a sweat by the water.

Benefits of the Color Blue

Studies have shown the color blue to be calming to the mind: the blue color of the ocean has the same effect (or perhaps an even more powerful one) as painting your office space blue to stimulate concentration and calmness.

Here on Fripp Island, we take ocean views very seriously. If you’re looking for a little bit of calmness in your life, and want to live closer to the water to reap all the wonderful benefits that come with being in the ocean’s proximity, call real estate agent John Lee at Fripp Island Real Estate today at 843-575-2820.

To get an idea of some of our available properties, click here to check out our ocean-view properties, and click here to view our ocean-front properties!

Looking To Build New? We’ve Got Lots Of Lots!

It can be exhausting looking at house after house and not seeing exactly what you want. Why settle for something close to perfect when you can build exactly what you want instead?

By buying a lot on Fripp Island, not only will you be on a secluded and appealing island, but you can also have the exact home of your dreams.

Fripp Island Real Estate offers a wide variety of property lots that are available for you to build your perfect home on.

The beautiful resort community of Fripp Island is the ideal place for you to design your year-round residence or South Carolina vacation home, and we can help you find the perfect spot to start building.

With 18 years of experience, we are experts on the region and can help you find a lot near myriad activities and amenities that will make your experience on Fripp Island even better.

Plus, residents have convenient access to the wildlife living amid a wildlife sanctuary with stunning trails and ocean access to see amazing animals of both land and sea!

Not only can you find a lot near lovely natural views, you can be close to fun outdoor activities like tennis and kayaking, too.

Looking to build new on an oceanfront property? No problem!

Fripp Island Real Estate offers numerous lots where your dream of reading a good book on the beach can happen daily. We also have available lots near one of the two championship golf courses, giving you near-immediate access to the links whenever you want to swing your clubs!

Perfect for the retiree, Fripp Island offers so many choices to build your ideal retirement destination.

But, Fripp Island is great for families, too! Build your new dream family home near kid-friendly destinations like the waterpark or beach.

Your children can have days playing in the sun and surf on the beach, giving you plenty of opportunities for fun, quality family time whether for the vacation season or all year round.

No matter what you are looking for, John Lee at Fripp Island Real Estate is ready to show you the lots available on Fripp Island to build the house of your dreams.

All you need is your imagination! Schedule an appointment today to learn more by calling 843-575-2820.

How to Increase Your Vacation Home’s Value

Whether you rent out your second home throughout the year, or spend the majority of the time living in it, keeping its value up is always important. While the value of your vacation home may inherently rise with the market, there are a few things you can do to boost its value even higher. Take a look at the following suggestions, and begin thinking of ways that you can increase how much your property is worth.

When it comes to the value of any home, especially your vacation house, the way it looks on the outside is incredibly important. Invest some time and money into landscaping to ensure the lawn looks neat and clean. Pruning and trimming bushes and trees is always a smart idea, and even grow a garden if you plan on being around for a long time. Of course, you can always hire someone to take care of your lawn and garden while you’re away. Just don’t neglect your property’s landscape in favor of focusing on the interior.

One of the simplest ways to boost the value of your home is by adding on new rooms. This is especially true when it comes to vacation homes, as they are often a place where large groups of friends and family members gather for weeks at a time. Having extra bedrooms, bathrooms, lounges, and more can really make your property stand out to someone who needs a lot of space.

Installing new and modern appliances throughout your home is also a great idea. Of course, simply having modern appliances throughout your home isn’t enough. You also have to carefully maintain them. Don’t allow your appliances to fall into a state of disrepair by tackling problems as soon as they arise.

Take advantage of these suggestions and you can easily make your vacation home worth more than what you bought it for.

Another Sale of Fripp Island

This Article was written By Page Miller

Another Sale of Fripp Island

John Lee

Robert Graves, a commercial shrimper and supply preacher who lives on St. Helena Island, has fond memories from his boyhood of camping in hunting Fripp. One of the most exciting experiences was being chased by a wild hog and seeking refuge in the tree. The site of oh house, which by 1950s was no longer standing, once favorite spot for pitching their tents, for it was easily accessible and somewhat protected. He recalls fighting off mosquitoes with ample supply of bug spray and use of mosquito nets. In answer to the question of whether there were ever stills on Fripp; Gray said he had never seen any on Fripp speculated that the wild hogs would have eaten up the mash before it had time to become liquor.

On September 9, 1954, McLean lumber company sold Fripp Island for $40,000 to the Fripp Island Corporation, which was made up a group of 16 Beaufortonians who purchase it for a private hunting and fishing preserve. The group included local leaders such as Sheriff McTeer, Claude McLeod, Harold and John Tress, GG Downing and Bradley Harvey Sr., men who over the years had been hunting, fishing and camping on Fripp, many of them since childhood.

Beginning of Fripp as a Resort

This Article was written By Page Miller

Beginning of Fripp as a Resort

John Lee

The group of 16 never built any houses on Fripp, but they did sell timber rights. On September 3, 1957, they signed a timber deed with W H Green and EJ Schumpert. In return for $25,000, the Fripp Island Corporation sold the rights to cut all pine trees on Fripp Island having a stump dimension of 10 or more inches. The timber deed forbade cutting of any hardwood trees, place a limit on 24 months on the agreement and gave permission to cut needing roads and build a dock for the removal of the timber. Language in the deed also abolished Green and Schumpert to use due care to prevent damage or injury to the trees and timber not covered by the deed, encouraging them to make every effort to protect the wild game and wild life on the island. Fortunately, most of Fripp island remained a veritable jungle with a heavy growth of Saw palmetto, wax myrtle, Cedar, Oak, tall palmettos, many uncut giant pines and occasionally large Live Oak trees.

Within months all the 1959 termination of that timber deed, Fripp island Corporation begin the negotiations with developer Jack Kilgore for the sale of their hunting preserve. In reflecting on the years preceding the building of a bridge to Fripp, William Hardee McLeod declared, I feel I had the opportunity to enjoy the best of the last hunting and fishing in Beaufort County.

Visitors By Air Plane to Fripp Island SC

This Article was written By Page Miller

Visitors By Air Plane to Fripp Island SC

John Lee

With the departure of the beach patrol, the abandoned barracks provided a shelter for outings to Fripp. There was kind of squatters rights system practice, whereby whoever found the barracks empty use them for lodging. Many happy and successful camping and fishing trips, Pierre McGowan wrote. We made through the use of these facilities. In addition, the end of World War II meant Hunting Island could once again become a state park with a public road, to its boat ramp. This made Fripp Island, located just one third of a mile across to the Fripp inlet, easy and assessable by boat. The combination of these, and access and the possibility of housing instead of tents increase the number of people who visit Fripp Island, particularly fishman, who considers Fripp, a paradise.

Visitors occasionally came to Fripp by private plane. William Hardee McLeod, who was related to the McLeod truck farming family of Seabrook and not the McLeod’s of the North Carolina lumber company, recalled boyhood memories of Fripp. McLeod’s father and jack Pollizer, who had been trail gunner during World War II, would fly to Fripp from a private airstrip located on what is now the Marine Corps Air Station in Beaufort. The plane would land on the beach at low tide just in time for the first hours of the incoming tide, the best time for fishing in the surf for bass. On at least one occasion, McLeod recalled, there was a hair rising departure as the high tide left little beach for getting airborne.

First Paintings of Fripp Island

This Article was written By Page Miller

First Paintings of Fripp Island

John Lee

McLeod also reminisced about the annual two week summer camping trips that his family had on Fripp during the late 40s and early 50s. It took a full day, as he remembered,, for them to come in a Lighting sailboat with an outboard motor, pulling a bateau loaded with supplies, tents, fishing equipment, water and ice. They set up camp near Skull Inlet. His father would fly down several times during the week with Jack Pollitzer to fish and to check on the family. As McLeod looked back on these days of his youth, he reminisced: “We swam, fished, ran footraces, told stories, ate and slept.” And during the whole two weeks, he noted, they never saw another boat or person except for the offshore shrimp boats.

In a delightful watercolor, local artiest Nancy Ricker Rhett captured the experience of her family camping on Fripp in the 1950s. Using old family photos as a source, she painted a cluster of picturesque canvas tents, many of which had been made by her great grandfather. A careful examination of Rhett’s painting suggests the location of the tent camp was on the beach near Skull Inter. Such a spot assured sea breezes and minimum mosquitoes. Rhett describes in her book Beaufort and the Low country the trips to Fripp and how a room sized oriental carpet was spread out on the sand as a play area for the youngest children. With an assortment of tents and cooks and nurse for the children, the family camped, as Rhett noted, the “grand style.”